1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a method of manufacturing an image forming element which is used in an image forming apparatus adopting a direct printing method, an image forming element manufactured by this method, and an image forming apparatus having the image forming element.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus adopting a direct printing method forms a latent image by directly applying an image signal to an image forming element and then forms an image by developing the latent image. Accordingly, this type of image forming apparatus does not require a laser scanning device or a charging device which is required for an image forming apparatus adopting an electrophotographing method, and also has a stable property in a processing level. Therefore, the image forming apparatus adopting the direct printing method has been steadily developed.
A general image forming element used in the image forming apparatus adopting the direct printing method comprises a cylindrical image drum, a plurality of ring electrodes arranged along an outer circumference of the image drum, and a control circuit board disposed inside the image drum.
The image drum is made of aluminum or aluminum alloy. The plurality of ring electrodes are insulated from one another due to an insulation layer formed along the outer circumference of the image drum, and also are insulated from the image drum. Each of the ring electrodes is electrically connected to a terminal provided on the control circuit board through a penetrating hole formed through the image drum.
The terminal of the control circuit board and each of the ring electrodes are electrically connected to each other using a zebra-strip. The control circuit board applies an appropriate voltage to each of the ring electrodes according to image data, and accordingly, a predetermined latent image is formed on the image forming element.
However, a conventional method for manufacturing such an image forming element requires complicated manufacturing processes such as a precise surface treatment, a minute pattern processing and a drilling using a laser beam, an electronic beam or a diamond cutting machine, a coating of an epoxy layer and a dielectric layer, and a coating of a conductive particle, and also requires a high manufacturing cost.